1. Technical Field
Various embodiments of the present invention relate to vehicle mounted implements for use in the tree trimming and lawn care industry, and more specifically, to the chipper body of a truck configured to collect landscape materials from a tow-behind wood chipper.
2. Description of Related Art
A tow-behind wood chipper is typically mounted on trailer with a pair of wheels and a hitch so that it can be towed behind a truck. The truck designed for use with such a chipper typically has a chipper body mounted on the truck's chassis to collect the chipped landscape materials dispensed from the outfeed of the chipper. The tow-behind wood chipper grinds up waste landscape materials—typically tree limbs, stumps, branches, leaves, weeds, plants or the like—and blows the chips into the truck's chipper body. When the interior of the chipper body is filled with chips, or when the landscape job is completed, the landscaper can drive the truck and tow-behind wood chipper to a designated area and empty the chipper body.
A conventional chipper body mounted on a truck empties through a gate at the back of the truck. Consequently, the tow-behind chipper must be unhitched from the rear of the truck in order to empty the conventional chipper body. An attempt to empty the conventional chipper body without moving the truck away from the chipper would result in a large pile of chipped landscape materials being dumped between the truck and the tow-behind chipper still connected to the truck. Conventional chipper bodies typically empty their contents by hoisting the front of the chipper box and dumping the contents through the back gate. These conventional chipper bodies are pivotally mounted to the truck chassis, and raised to a dump position by a hydraulic hoist mounted between the front end of the chipper body and the truck chassis. In this way the chips stored in the chipper body are dumped from the rear end of the chipper body.
This operation can be difficult and time consuming. The landscaper must unhitch the chipper to perform the dumping operation. The hoists used to lift such conventional chipper bodies can fail by “freezing.” Also, if there are power lines or other obstructions overhead, the landscaper may need to raise an aerial measuring rod to ensure there is sufficient vertical clearance before the chipper body can safely be raised to the dump position. Since the truck's chipper body is hoisted, it can be difficult to unload the contents in a storage shed unless there is considerable vertical clearance. In addition to the landscaper operating the hoist, a spotter may be needed to further visually ensure that the chipper body does not hit any overhead obstructions when raised. After the chipper body is emptied, the chipper must be re-hitched to the truck before returning to work. It generally takes two workers to re-hitch the chipper on to the truck's hitch.